Sharp decline in the number of homes for rent

There has been a significant drop in the number of homes available to rent over the past 12 months, according to new figures released today.

Across the UK the new listings ‘to let’ last month sat at -9%, marking the largest decline for July since 2013.

But while figures for properties ‘to let’ fell, the volume of homes ‘let’ actually rose to sit at a robust at 3.6%, which is rather impressive given that the figures recorded in the same period last year show that properties ‘let’ sat at -5.2%.

Looking at performance across the UK, seven of the 12 regions recorded by the Property Activity Index reported a rise in properties ‘let’ but only two recorded increases in properties ‘to let’.

The findings from this month’s Agency Express Property Index suggests that while the supply of available properties has seen significant falls across the country, demand from tenants has continued to grow as many people find themselves priced out of homeownership; an attractive proposition for many buy-to-let landlords as this is likely to place upward pressure on rental values.